Thoughts going in, Sunday May 10th, Easter 6

(John 15:9-17) As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. ¹²This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

This Sunday's Gospel reading is a direct continuation from last week's. Last week we saw the first 8 verses from John 15 talked about Christ the true vine, and his disciples as branches. We also saw that the only imperative, the only 'command,' within those 8 verses was to REMAIN.

Building on this, we see now two commands in this section. First, "REMAIN," again, this time not only remaining "in Christ," but specifically in his love (v.9), which is a reflection of the Father's love (v.10). Second, love each other.

Ironically, the first command probably sounds easier than the second. Of course, if God hasn't done anything too bad to us lately (like let a tornado destroy our house, etc.) we can probably drum up something close to a generic love of God. After all, he provides the air we breathe, the rain and sunshine that allows crops to grow, and it's just sorta easy for people raised in the Church to have a "benevolent dictator" view of God. Occasionally he seems capricious, but if nothing bad has happened to us lately, he seems ok most of the time.

But what about "each other?" It seems that the more I've immersed myself in church work, the more I have sadly come upon the truth that very often Christians not only aren't characterized for their love of God's creation, or their love of for un-churched humanity, ..... they're not even characterized by their love for EACH OTHER. Indeed, often they're not even characterized by their general "like" for each other! How can this be? When the Bible has SO MUCH to say about love, how can people who claim to be interested in adhering to the Bible's teaching, fall so short?

Very likely there are enough aspects to answering that question to fill an entire book, but two things suggest themselves to me right off the bat. First, Jesus says in John 13:35 "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have LOVE for each other." If that's true, then it's probably safe to say that the reverse is also true. Something along the lines of, "By this nobody will be able to figure out that you are my disciples if you have no love for each other." Hence, while some may find the 'handiwork' of the forces of evil most prevalent in wars, disease, destruction of our environment, etc., it's very safe to say that such forces are also fast at work in an anti-evangelistic crusade to blunt and silence the message of Christ in the world--and what better way to accomplish this than to turn Christians into an angry, hateful, bickering mob of fanatics who not only hate the world, but hate each other?

The second thing that comes to mind in terms of falling short of the Bible's concept of reflecting the love of Christ (and hence his Father) has to do with the true meaning of biblical love. Vs 13 is that very well-known passage: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. The great thing about this verse is that it turns our attention away from the 'emotional' side of love. Some people, after all, ARE difficult to like even if they are Christians. But in vs 13, we come upon a different concept: the idea of love = dedication to others; love = not living solely for oneself; love = living one's life with devoted to the needs of the community of friends [fellow Christians first, followed by an ever-widening circle of all creation]. This is the sort of love that willingly and purposely DECIDES to befriend another, regardless of who they are. That describes Jesus' friendship toward us, and *should describe our friendship toward each other. This is what the baptized life looks like.

cheers,

TM